Walton School Safety Additions Featured in Informacast Website

Over the past year, led by Director of Technology Rick Robinson, the Walton Central School District upgraded several key safety features at the school.

These features include installing a new Cisco VoIP phone system, new camera system, door access control system, and the integration of the nationally renowned emergence notification software Informacast.

Recently, Robinson worked on a video to showcase all of these features and the district was featured on the website of Singlewire, the developer of Informacast (https://www.singlewire.com/blog/emergency-notification/school-safety-video). The article, which included the video, explained how all systems have been integrated together, utilizing different plugins provided by Informacast.

The video, which was narrated by WCS music teacher Raymond Bartlett, is also below and on the district’s YouTube page.

“Rick Robinson produced a fantastic video that tells the story of how they took a comprehensive approach to safety and security,” said Pat Scheckel, the executive vice president of product management and marketing for Singlewire. “By bringing together mass notification with door access control, the fire alarm system, 911 alerting and other scenarios, Walton Central has created a system that works for everyone involved. The collaborative effort of the school district, local law enforcement and safety professionals has yielded a safer learning environment and is a model for other districts to follow.”

Walton has worked on several safety projects to make the district safer for its staff and students. Some of the upgrades include:

Installation of Cisco VoIP phone system which provides the ability to quickly trigger automated messages and alerts district wide through the push of a button;

Installing more than 70 new HD cameras district-wide, covering all areas of the school buildings, inside and out;

The new door access control gives staff the ability to see who is coming in and going out of district buildings, as well as who has access to which buildings;

And Informacast, which provides the district with the ability to send mass notifications to existing platforms such as the fire alarm system, the analog paging system, computer desktops, and smartboards, as well as integrating seamlessly with the new additions.

“The most important aspect of the entire project was making sure all of our systems work together,” Robinson said. “It was incorporating all of our projects so they work seamlessly together for get to the common goal of making the district safer. We have a lot of new systems, and none of them were meant to work together. Informacast gave us features we needed to make sure everything could co-exist and work well together.”

Walton is an innovative leader with these items among area schools as well, said WCS Acting Superintendent Larry Thomas.

“The safety of our students and staff is a top priority,” Thomas said. “Rick and his staff constantly review the technology available to enhance school safety and work tirelessly to bring it to Walton at a competitive price. We won’t rest on our laurels, either. We are continuing to push forward and make improvements where needed.”